Raising the big questions about what makes a person the ideal mediator between people and their faith, the Turkish drama series on Netflix takes a swing at psychological themes. Directed by Yagmur Taylan and Durul Taylan, the 8-part show is based on Afşin Kum’s novel of the same name.
Kubra Season 1 Release Date
18 January 2024
Kubra Cast
Cagatay Ulusoy, Aslihan Malbora, Ahsen Eroglu, Nazan Kesal, Cihan Talay, Aytek Sayan
Kubra Plot
Gokhan has seen war upfront, and still deals with the residual trauma of the experience that rendered him the sole survivor of a brutal raid. Years later as he settles into his suburban lifestyle as a mechanic, while still grappling with the mental turmoil, “God” decides to get in touch with him under the virtual name Kubra and picks him to be the chosen one and his voice. In the process, he sets out to find a greater meaning to his existence and people huddle closer as his followers, but not everyone.
-No Spoilers-
Kubra Review
Gokhan never becomes the larger than life leader he’s expected to be. He doesn’t have the spectacle-worthy oratory talent, and is rather a common man among others looking for a greater meaning to life and his purpose and role in it for it all to mean something bigger. This is where the issue of faith kicks in, because as the title reminds us, not only is Gokhan not just the ideal protagonist we’re looking for, he isn’t the main character, period. It’s Kubra, the all mighty godly presence communicating through the SoulTouch app, constantly reminding us of its omnipresence.
All 8 episodes focus on building up the crossfires between the believers and the skeptics, tipping over to the blasphemer category too. Carefully, yet cleverly, this series plays with the idea of how such notions only come to hold the power they do when they find vessels of propagation in people, and just like that a prophet or a mediator between the general masses and the higher power is found. Kubra series consistently keeps in check how Gokhan’s character never steals the limelight as the grand protagonist owing to his regular need for reassurance, very much like a common man does.
Despite playing these thought-provoking cards on faith itself, the Netflix show doesn’t side with either of the cases made or give precedence to either schools of thought. Instead of shaping out a weighty narrative to support either case, it merely lays out both pictures of the pros and cons of holding on to faith for dear life, thus proving that ultimately it comes down to how a person harnesses the supposed powers of faith, or the lack thereof.
Cagatay Ulusoy magnificently helms this emotionally grey portrayal of the man stuck in between owning his responsibilities as a newfound cult leader, and a common man who’s equally perturbed by the questions of faith and religion. In the meantime, he too is struggling to thread his way through the radical changes happening in his life, and therefore those of others who expect him to rise up to the occasion and take control of the narrative – his family for more personal reasons, concerning about his safety and all, vs the public counting on him to embody the word of God.
Again, Kubra Netflix show doesn’t entirely blow off the roof with something out of the ordinary because we’ve all seen similar content with newly emerging messiahs on the scene, struggling to balance the onus of their responsibilities and agency. However, what sets this series apart is the way it smartly intertwines the themes of religious faith and human-made technological advancements at the seams of a common ground that problematises both aspects, and their especially monumentally imposing ways of both making and breaking the sense of security and stability in human life.
What makes your jaw drop even further is the realistically frightening vision of how the masses also get sucked into what was once Gokhan’s personal mental conflict about faith. Soon thereafter, a resistance movement, innately fuelled by violence despite it all having begun with the thoughts of “saving” people and finding one’s altruistic purpose in the world, fleshes out, and it all disturbingly touches a nerve considering how closely it mirrors real life events in spite of being powered by a fictional plot.
However, while situating Gokhan as an ex-army man was an interesting way to weigh out his former sufferings and traumas and bridge the gap between them and his present that compels him to stand on the pedestal as a prophet, the series doesn’t fully invest time into building up the former case. We’re barely presented with a sneak peek into how his past still overpowers his emotions, resulting in him constantly seeking reassurance through religious faith, but if more weight was added to the foundations of his character’s painful history, it would’ve only further humanised him. Unfortunately, that bit gets left behind in the dust.
Final Thoughts
Faith and Technology – both relate to such grand schemes of life that have turned out to be indispensable parts of our lives, regardless of whether you’re a believer or not. To see a TV show complicate them, only to dive into an extended investigation that doesn’t hope to throw its one-sided acceptance of either cases is like watching an existential dialogue come to life. In its own intriguing ways, Kubra wins you over with its choice of not turning the whole thing into a preachy lecture.
On the other hand, it completely flips over the done before elements and instead of letting the main man be questioned for his madness, it takes the other route of building a narrative that gives him a chance to transfer his personal beliefs to a larger political context, resulting in the chaos that follows. If such themes make your thinking muscle tick, you should definitely watch this series, for it will make you ponder deep and then leave you feeling twisted about many personal beliefs and coping mechanisms.
All 8 episodes of Kubra are streaming on Netflix.
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